Shakira has lucky escape after attack by sea lion

London: Shakira was attacked by a raging sea lion who mistook her mobile phone for a fish.

The 35-year-old singer was attempting to take a photo of the giant animal when it jumped out of the water and tried to bite her.

Her brother bravely pulled her away from “the beast”, leaving them both with minor scratches.

The ‘Hips Don’t Lie’ hitmaker posted a blog and pictures of the incident, which happened last weekend during her holiday in Cape Town, South Africa.

“This afternoon I happened to see some sea lions and seals. I thought how cute they were so decided to get closer than all of the other tourists and went down to a rock,” the Sun quoted her as saying.

“Suddenly, one jumped out of the water so fast that it got about one foot away from me, looked me in the eye, roared in fury and tried to bite me.

“Everyone there screamed, including me. I was paralysed by fear and couldn’t move, ‘I just kept eye contact with it while my brother ‘Super Tony’ jumped over me and literally saved my life, taking me away from the beast.

“We both got our hands and legs scratched by the rocks while trying to protect ourselves,” she said.

She said that it might have mistaken her phone with a fish.

“I believe it confused the reflection of the BlackBerry phone I was taking pics with, with some sort of fish. It thought I was teasing it with food,” she wrote.